1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rodeways of the type designed for transporting passengers between two stations by means of a cable or rope driving a plurality of cabins, cars or gondolas adapted to be disconnected by clutch means from the cable at said stations and to transport only a few persons. More particularly, this invention relates to a cabin of this general character, which is provided with means for automatically opening and closing the doors thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,016 in the name of the same Applicants, it has already been proposed to construct the housing or envelope of the cabin in the form of a shell actually consisting of a pair of moulded plastic shells assembled along a vertical transverse joint or median plane, these shells being pivoted to each other on one side about a vertical axis so as to open along the joint plane on the opposite side so as to clear a lateral passage centrally of this last-mentioned cabin side.
In a cabin of this type with the exit and access located in the middle of one side, the seats supported by the carrier frame structure are disposed transversely, in face-to-face relationship, on either side of the vertical transverse plane of symmetry of the cabin, so that the passengers are supported near the two ends of the cabin, in the front and rear portions thereof, and face each other, therefore without having a complete forward or rearward visibility.
The passenger capacity of the ropeway is obviously limited by the number of cabins, the capacity of each of them, i.e. their number of seats, and also by the stopping time required at both stations for the disconnected cabins for enabling the passengers to step in and out. In many cases, it would be desirable to reduce stopping times by accelerating the stepping in and out of the passengers. It may also be desirable to increase the number of seats per cabin and this increased number of seats requires an easier and more rapid ingress and egress of the passengers.